TIME FOR BACH

Thank heavens for Wigmore Hall, which came out of lockdown early in June to present a daily series of lunchtime recitals live on BBC Radio 3. The last but one of them was given by the reigning queen of Bach on the piano, Angela Hewitt. She had been due to receive the Wigmore Medal – bestowed before now on piano luminaries such as Martha Argerich, Menahem Pressler and Sir András Schiff – on 2 June, when she would have played The Art of Fugue as the culmination to a four-season Bach Odyssey. Covid-19 may have put a stop to that, but once the microphones were off, the medal was still presented by the Hall’s executive director, John Gilhooly.

Since her debut there in 1985, Hewitt has given